Preparing Your Excel / CSV List

Good news first: when you upload your list, Mailbots cleans most of this up for you automatically. This guide explains what we handle, the one thing only you can provide (a real mailing address), and the column headers our uploader looks for.

What we clean automatically

The moment you upload, before anything prints, Mailbots:

Restores ZIP codes that lost a leading zero in Excel.
Standardizes state names to two-letter codes.
Blanks the greeting for companies, LLCs, and trusts — no more “Hi Warren Family Trust.”
Blanks initial-only first names so a card never reads “Hi C.”
Splits first and last names out of a full-name column.
Fixes ALL-CAPS names.

You'll see every change in a review panel during the order — grouped and one-click revertible — and your original upload is always kept. The one thing we can't guess is a real mailing address; that has to be in your file. The reference below is still worth a skim — matching these headers makes the upload mapping instant.

Required columns

Include all of these columns. Keep the headers spelled and spaced exactly as shown — our uploader auto-detects them, and consistent headers map instantly.

Column header	What it's for
FULL NAME/LLC/TRUST	The mailing name printed on the postcard.
FIRST NAME	Used for greeting merge tags like Hi {{first_name}}.
LAST NAME	The recipient’s last name (people only).
PROPERTY ADDRESS	The property you’re writing about. Used in the message, not for mailing.
MAIL ADDRESS	Street address the postcard is delivered to.
MAIL CITY	City of the delivery address.
MAIL STATE	State of the delivery address.
MAIL ZIP	ZIP of the delivery address.

Optional columns

Add any of these if your message or internal workflow needs them. They’re never required to mail a card.

Column header	What it's for
PROPERTY CITY	City of the property.
PROPERTY STATE	State of the property.
PROPERTY ZIP	ZIP of the property.
APN	Assessor’s parcel number.
COUNTY	County the property sits in.

How to use the name fields

This is the part people get wrong

The mailing name and the greeting name are two different fields. Mix them up and you get postcards that open with “Hi Warren Family Trust.”

FULL NAME/LLC/TRUST — the printed mailing name

This is the only field used for the name printed on the postcard. Put the exact name you want shown, including suffixes like LLC, Inc, or Trust.

John Smith
Warren Family Trust
Acme Properties LLC

FIRST NAME — the greeting merge tag

This field feeds personalization inside the message body, like Hi {{first_name}}. It is not the printed mailing name.

Leave FIRST NAME blank whenever FULL NAME/LLC/TRUST is a company, entity, trust, or LLC — otherwise your message opens with a greeting like “Hi Warren Family Trust,” which is not what you want.

Rule

If FULL NAME/LLC/TRUST contains an entity name (LLC, Trust, Inc, Corp, Co, Estate, etc.) → FIRST NAME should be blank.

LAST NAME

Use it for people — a normal last name. For companies, trusts, and other entities, LAST NAME can be left blank unless your internal process needs it.

Avoid bad greetings from initials

Some owners have a first name that’s just a letter — for example C. Scott. With a greeting like Hi {{first_name}}, that prints as “Hi C.”, which reads as a mistake.

Best practice for these cases:

If FIRST NAME is a single character (like C) or ends in a period (like C.), set FIRST NAME to blank.
Keep the full printed name correct in FULL NAME/LLC/TRUST — for example FULL NAME/LLC/TRUST = C. Scott, FIRST NAME = blank, LAST NAME = Scott.

This prevents “Hi C.” from ever appearing on a card.

Address formatting

MAIL ADDRESS, MAIL CITY, MAIL STATE, and MAIL ZIP are the delivery address — where the postcard physically goes. Make sure this is the owner's mailing address, which is often different from the property address.

Don’t mail multiple pieces to the same address

If an owner holds several properties — say a quadplex — your list can contain the same mailing address several times. That owner receives a stack of identical postcards on the same day, which looks like spam. De-duplicate by MAIL ADDRESS so each household gets one card.

Quick quality checks before uploading

Mailbots now runs all three of these for you automatically on upload. If you'd still rather hand-check first, here's how — filter and sort in Excel to catch the most common problems fast.

Entities given a first name

Filter rows where FULL NAME/LLC/TRUST contains LLC, INC, CORP, CO, TRUST, or ESTATE. Confirm FIRST NAME is blank on every one.

Initial-only first names

Filter FIRST NAME for values with a length of 1, or values ending in a period. Set those FIRST NAME cells to blank.

ZIP codes

Verify ZIP codes didn't lose their leading zeros. Excel often strips the leading 0 from Northeast ZIPs — format the column as Text before pasting.

Example rows

Three rows formatted correctly for the three common cases:

Individual

FULL NAME/LLC/TRUST: John A Smith
FIRST NAME: John
LAST NAME: Smith

Trust / entity (no greeting name)

FULL NAME/LLC/TRUST: Warren Family Trust
FIRST NAME: (blank)
LAST NAME: (blank)

Initial-only first name

FULL NAME/LLC/TRUST: C. Scott
FIRST NAME: (blank)
LAST NAME: Scott

Ready to upload?

Once your spreadsheet passes these checks, head to start an order and upload it. Our column mapper auto-detects these headers and shows you sample rows to confirm before anything prints. Questions? Email support@mailbots.ai.